Teaching@FEIT - Seminars and Workshops

The Promise and the Curse of eLearning: Teaching IT to Diverse Student Cohorts

Associate Professor Uwe Roehm (SIT)

Tuesday, 27th May, 1-2pm SIT lecture theatre (SIT level 1)

Light lunch will be available from 12.30pm before the seminar (no RSVP is needed)

AbstractA great challenge in teaching technical subjects is to simultaneously engage with diverse student cohorts - a setting very common in fields with high relevance to other degrees such as with information technology. This talk will give an overview of the approach taken when teaching database systems at the School of IT, for example by letting students work with real-world data and problems.

In our core IT subjects, we are facing classes of several hundred students from both the Engineering Faculty and other Faculties, as well as up-to three different teaching streams at the same time. For such large classes, online systems promise richer interaction, faster response times, integration of practical skill development, and - not the least - a better manageable workload for teaching staff - but they certainly also have their pitfalls.

The speaker has been using and developing eLearning systems intensively for the last ten years.

This talk will focus on a summary of hands-on examples and lessons learned with both off-the-shelf and self-build software: Blackboard, Piazza, and SQL Challenge

SpeakerUwe Roehm is Associate Professor at the School of Information Technologies in the area of database systems and data engineering. For more than ten years, he is teaching database systems, software engineering, and cloud computing subjects on both the undergraduate and postgraduate coursework level at the School of IT, as well as to prospect students as part of the National Computer Science School (NCSS). Between 2008 and 2011, Uwe was alsothe postgraduate coursework director at the School of IT. He received the Dean's award for Outstanding Teaching in 2013.

Dr Roehm studied computer science at the University of Passau, Germany, and received his PhD degree from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, in 2002 about his work of Online Analytical Processing with a cluster of databases. Before joining the University of Sydney in 2004, he was working for two years as software developer and IT consultant in Germany.

His research interests are concurrency control on multi-core CPUs, hardware transactional memory, replication management and parallel data processing for bioinformatics.

Flipping your classroom - where to start

Tuesday, 17th June, 10-12noonChemical Engineering Flexible Learning Space (ground floor)Light lunch will be available from 12.30pm after the workshop

Please RSVP by 10th June 2014 using the form below as there are pre-workshop activities. Places are strictly capped at 40.

This is a workshop for the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies staff only.

AbstractThe term flipped classroom refers to a teaching strategy in which students engage individually with activities and resources prior to class, to prepare for interactive learning in the classroom. The objective is to give timely feedback on learning by maximising interaction in face-to-face class time, providing a more engaging and personalised learning experience for students.

This workshop aims to start you on your own flipped class design, and will itself be flipped - with online pre-activities preparing you for hands-on activities during the face-to-face session.

During the session: - we will discuss potential benefits and considerations of the flipped classroom approach; - you will have the opportunity to sketch the design of flipped classroom activities you could implement in one of your own classes.

A pre-workshop activity will be available one week prior to the session, and a link will be sent to you. For the face-to-face session please bring along a learning outcome for a class or topic you teach and a laptop or tablet.

PresentersDr. Abelardo Pardo is Associate Head of Teaching and Learning and Lecturer at the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, The University of Sydney. He is co-director of the Software Engineering group and his research interest is in the application of technology to explore, understand and influence human behaviour. He has experience in the use of technology in learning and behavioural analytics, social networks, computer supported collaboration, personalisation, and technology enhanced learning. He has participated in national and international projects funded by the Office for Teaching and Learning (Australia), National Science Foundation (USA), and the European Union, and is author of more than 100 research publications in prestigious conferences and journals. Dr. Negin Mirriahi is a Academic Developer/Lecturer in the Learning and Teaching Unit and holds a Doctorate in Education with a focus on online learning and distance education and a Masters in Educational Technology. With 10 years of experience working in higher education institutions in Canada and Australia, Negin has extensive experience in managing, designing, implementing, and evaluating educational technology in higher education in various disciplines and in both fully online and blended learning contexts. Negin has research interests in technology adoption/acceptance models, social network analysis, learning analytics, blended learning, and massive and open online courses (MOOCs).

Assessment and Feedback in Blackboard - Part I

This is a workshop for the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies staff only.

AbstractThis workshop will introduce faculty staff to the key functionality in the University learning management system (Blackboard) for assessment and feedback. Topics covered:- Creating different question types for tests- Creating pools of questions- Providing feedback- Creating and deploying rubrics (marking schemes)- Creating assignments for report submissions

This is a faculty based and hands-on workshop. You can bring your own laptop/tablet or use one of the computers in the room. The workshop is listed in CareerPath and the maximum number of places is 30.

Assessment and Feedback in Blackboard - Part II

This is a workshop for the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies staff only.

AbstractThis workshop will introduce faculty staff to the key functionality in the University learning management system (Blackboard) for assessment and feedback, focusing on creating different types of questions for tests.

This is a faculty based and hands-on workshop.

You can bring your own laptop/tablet or use one of the computers in the room.

The workshop is listed in CareerPath and the maximum number of places is 30.